Russian Anzacs

John Goldberg, a Jewish man from Grodno in Belarus, came to Australia in 1904, at the age of 14, to join his relatives there. He lived in outback New South Wales, in Gundagai, Harden, Adelong, Burrowa, and Dubbo, working as a draper, running a shop with his brother George.
Enlisting in the AIF in Sydney, he arrived in England with the reinforcements to the 36th Battalion. He developed nephritis and was returned to Australia, where he served in a medical unit.
After the war he married Nellie Rosenberg and lived in Sydney, working as a fruiterer and carrier.

Haim Platkin, a Jewish man from Rogachev in Belarus, emigrated to England at the end of the nineteenth century. He worked as a theatrical manager and came to Australia in June 1914 with The Cherniawsky Brothers, a group of Russian-Jewish instrumentalists.
After participating in fundraising for patriotic endeavours, he enlisted in the AIF himself. He was sent to the N.C.O. school and Duntroon College, but, boycotted by other servicemen as a ‘Russian’, he went to the front with an artillery unit. While in England he applied for transfer to the 42nd Battalion (Jewish) of the Imperial Army.
After the war he lived in Syria, running ‘Anzac Harry’s Bar’.

Oscar Hocklind, a Finnish seaman and blacksmith from Helsingfors (Helsinki), most likely came to Australia during the war.
He enlisted in the AIF with another Baltic seaman, Adolf Odenberg. A week later he was discharged and continued sailing, working on American vessels.

Adolf Odenberg, an Estonian seaman and blacksmith from Tallinn, came to Australia in November 1916.
Two months later he enlisted in the army, but was discharged soon afterwards.
During the following year he sailed in Australian American waters, and died in 1918 in San Francisco.